Chinese double-entry bookkeeping before the nineteenth century

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The Accounting Historians Journal Vol. 19, No. 2 December 1992
Z. Jun Lin
UNIVERSITY OF LETHBRIDGE
CHINESE DOUBLE-ENTRY BOOKKEEPING BEFORE THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
Abstract: This paper examines the origination and evolution of Chi-nese double-entry bookkeeping from the fifteenth century to eigh-teenth century. It demonstrates that Chinese merchants and bankers invented some types of double-entry spontaneously around the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Several different versions of Chinese double-entry existed and evolved throughout this period to the nineteenth century. Chinese versions of double-entry are similar to Italian-style bookkeeping, although Chinese experience was inde-pendent of the dissemination of the Western methods.
INTRODUCTION
Double-entry bookkeeping, with "Debit" and "Credit" as en-try direction labels, prevails throughout most of the world. It is widely believed that the invention of double-entry bookkeeping brought about the birth of modern accounting [Littleton, 1966; Ten Have, 1976; Robertson, 1978; Parker, 1984]. In fact, this bookkeeping method constitutes the foundation of modern ac-counting over the past six centuries. Even in today's high-tech, information-revolution era, double-entry bookkeeping remains the core of the EDP accounting system.1 The significance and implications of double-entry bookkeeping have been recognized by much research and accounting literature [Kat, 1930; Littleton and Yamey, 1956; Thomson and Yamey, 1958; Winjum, 1971; Lee, 1973; Most, 1972, 1976; Kojima, 1975; Wil-liams, 1978].
Although there is no clear answer about when and by whom double-entry bookkeeping was invented, most authorities
1 Professor Yuji Iriji has explored the potential of triple-entry bookkeeping. Although the idea of triple-entry bookkeeping is admirable, it is far from perfect in a practical sense. As well, the underlying principles of triple-entry are stemmed from that of double-entry. Thus, it could be regarded as an extended application of the double-entry bookkeeping system.